Europe goes to war on coronavirus March 11, 2020 The Italian government this evening ordered an effective shutdown of the country with a decree closing all shops, bars and restaurants save for grocery stores and pharmacists as it grapples with Europe’s largest coronavirus outbreak. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s dramatic announcement is the latest step in a gradual lockdown of the Mediterranean country. On Sunday, [...]
The Democrats appear to learn the right lesson March 5, 2020 Last Friday evening, Bernie Sanders addressed an energetic, excitable crowd of nearly 5,000 in the Massachusetts city of Springfield, drumming up support ahead of the Super Tuesday round of Democrat primaries. Even more impressively, he then persuaded more than 13,000 supporters to turn out in freezing conditions to an outdoor rally in Boston Common last [...]
Jack Welch: A business giant by any definition March 3, 2020 There are corporate titans — and then there is Jack Welch, who led General Electric through an extraordinary expansion as its totemic chief executive in the go-go days of the 1980s and ‘90s. Fortune magazine named him Manager of the Century and considering that the market capitalisation of the firm went from $13bn (£10.2bn) to [...]
Home Office chaos looks none too Priti March 2, 2020 The perpetual conflict between Eastasia, Oceania and Eurasia’ in Orwell’s 1984 is a warning, not a how-to. Yet Number 10 and Boris Johnson’s government seem to be creating their own version of permanent war, finding enemies real and imagined right across the ranks of the civil service, the backbenches and Britain’s oldest institutions. The latest [...]
UCL to force students to relocate mid-semester February 29, 2020 Top London university UCL is under fire this afternoon for forcing residents of a postgraduate residence hall to move out of their student accommodation – with no guarantee of where they will be moving to. Earlier this week students at Hawkridge House in Kentish Town were emailed informing them that “a decision has been made [...]
Aviation expansion is a no-brainer February 27, 2020 It’s 1968, and the Harold Wilson government’s official Roskill Commission begins to look into the possibility of a third airport for London. Heathrow is increasingly full and anybody with any foresight can see that aviation traffic is only going to become more important in the modern economy. His recommendation is an airport in Buckinghamshire, but [...]
Another UK-EU battle seems almost certain February 26, 2020 Remember the summer of 2018? The sun shining almost constantly, England’s footballers marching to the latter stages of a major international tournament, and interminable battles between Westminster and Brussels over the future relationship between the UK and the European Union. Alas, the first two can’t be guaranteed — though we deserve some vitamin D after [...]
Exclusive: Javid to make first statement since exit February 26, 2020 Sajid Javid will today make a short statement in Parliament, his first public intervention since he resigned as chancellor just under a fortnight ago. Javid stepped down after being asked to fire his aides by the Prime Minister as part of a drastic reorganisation of Number 10 and 11 Downing Street. Refusing, Javid said “no [...]
Lessons for Britain over the tragedy of Syria February 25, 2020 The Syrian civil war, which began in 2011, is coming to a bloody end — and, despite so many deaths that the United Nations essentially stopped counting, Bashar al-Assad is victorious. Idlib, the besieged home of the remaining Syrian rebels who fled as regime forces retook the rest of the country, will soon be added [...]
Spending spree could come at a heavy cost February 24, 2020 From the briefings that have been emerging from Downing Street and the Treasury in recent weeks, it is sometimes difficult to remember which party won the last election. Ahead of the Budget, there are reports we could be set for a spending boom to rival Gordon Brown’s pre-election giveaway in 2001 — the very height [...]